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Bendis and Bachalo once again provide an exciting, incident-filled issue of Uncanny, and this one is even better than most because Dazzler: Agent Of SHIELD takes centre-stage. I seriously love this new development for Dazzler, and Bendis puts it to really good use here, especially with Goldenballs’ sister recognising her and pulling out one of her albums, complete with awesome 80s cover. This is like if Madonna joined the FBI, and it is awesome. I also found it interesting how this issue showed just how shady SHIELD can be. I love it when that organisation has an edge, because as Fabio points out, Cyclops didn’t kidnap him, SHIELD did. Slowly but surely, Cyclops is being proven right.

As for Cyclops, he and the rest of his ‘team’ continue to train, and we find out more about their new recruit, David, who can not only control cars, but also planes and yes, Helicarriers. I like his codename too, Hijack, although, he is on a team that are labelled as ‘Terrorists’ my most of the rest of the Marvel Universe, that can’t be good PR, surely?

Bendis also does something new and cool with the Stepford Cuckoos here, which I didn’t think could be done. One of them (does it matter which?) arrives for the training session with a new hair-do. Unlike her sisters, she is no longer blonde, but has got a pitch-black bob. These characters have often barely been characters, so it’s really great how Bendis is changing them, and actually giving them individualities. How does someone in a hivemind assert their personality? That’s going to be a cool plotline.

Of course, Cyclops’ team go and rescue Fabio, and that leads to let more sort of awkward, sort of amazing mutant allegory stuff, as Cyke labels Dazzler ‘the Uncle Tom of mutants’, which is just… wow… I know this stuff is going to piss a lot of people off, but I love it. These kinds of metaphor have been at the heart of the X-Men concept since the very beginning, and now they are back, and front and centre like never before. It’s making these titles feel truly vital, and most of all, it’s causing a lot of discussion and thought amongst fans. The best science-fiction causes us to question our society, and these days, the X-Books (and Uncanny Avengers) are doing just that.

The end of this issue was also very interesting, as Mystique, who just had her plans foiled in All-New, poisons Dazzler and takes her place. Is Dazzler dead? I hope not, but either way, this is a cool development, I’m really enjoying Bendis’ take on Mystique, as whilst the heroes are all fragmented and fighting amongst themselves, a true villain like her is free to get up to all sorts of shit, and she’s a real wildcard.

I feel like I should talk up Chris Bachalo’s art a bit too, he’s doing some really great stuff on this book, it’s visually different from his previous X-Men work, and I think a lot of that is because of the colours he himself is providing, he’s using a lot of cool colour techniques that I don’t really have the language to describe, but this book looks different than I expected, and that’s a good thing.

Dazzler just waltz's into Fabio's home, uses her powers on his family, and the next thing you know Fabio is handcuffed to a chair in the bowels of a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier with Dazzler interrogating him! There are people out there constructing machines that are designed with the sole purpose to hunt and murder mutants, not to mention the fact that Wolverine and the Avengers just killed time, but hey that can wait. Right now we need to abduct an innocent teenager so that we can intimidate and interrogate him about the whereabouts of a man who has been a hero his entire life, saved the world countless times, and whose only crime was committed while under the possession of a cosmic entity.

Anyways, this was another great issue of Bendis' Uncanny X-Men run. I hate the fact that he has to reinforce the fact that Cyclops is NOT a villain each issue but eventually people will catch on to the fact that Scott Summers was/is right.

An Uncle Tom is a derogatory term for someone who actively participates in the oppressive subjugation of a group to which they belong. Gay Republicans, for instance, are often referred to as Uncle Toms.

I don't see why you and Rich Johnston seem to think this would cause some sort of controversy.

BlueStreak wrote:An Uncle Tom is a derogatory term for someone who actively participates in the oppressive subjugation of a group to which they belong. Gay Republicans, for instance, are often referred to as Uncle Toms.

I don't see why you and Rich Johnston seem to think this would cause some sort of controversy.

Uncanny Avengers #5 promoted the belief that conformity and whitewashing were favorable than coming to terms with self-identifiers and society accepting diversity. It didn't help that its writer had all the tact of a bull in a china store when people brought up the connotations. Had Remender not told people to drown in hobo piss, people would have just rolled their eyes and moved on.

So to recap: advocating a controversial view on race causes controversy. Using a commonly used non-racial epithet does not.

BlueStreak wrote:Uncanny Avengers #5 promoted the belief that conformity and whitewashing were favorable than coming to terms with self-identifiers and society accepting diversity. It didn't help that its writer had all the tact of a bull in a china store when people brought up the connotations. Had Remender not told people to drown in hobo piss, people would have just rolled their eyes and moved on.

So to recap: advocating a controversial view on race causes controversy. Using a commonly used non-racial epithet does not.

I'd say applying such a loaded real-life term to cartoon mutants could be seen as offensive.

Grayson wrote:Dazzler just waltz's into Fabio's home, uses her powers on his family, and the next thing you know Fabio is handcuffed to a chair in the bowels of a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier with Dazzler interrogating him! There are people out there constructing machines that are designed with the sole purpose to hunt and murder mutants, not to mention the fact that Wolverine and the Avengers just killed time, but hey that can wait. Right now we need to abduct an innocent teenager so that we can intimidate and interrogate him about the whereabouts of a man who has been a hero his entire life, saved the world countless times, and whose only crime was committed while under the possession of a cosmic entity.

Anyways, this was another great issue of Bendis' Uncanny X-Men run. I hate the fact that he has to reinforce the fact that Cyclops is NOT a villain each issue but eventually people will catch on to the fact that Scott Summers was/is right.

to be fair to Dazzler, she didn't just "waltz in" the last issue she came to his door, his family let them in.. and she didn't use her powers until AFTER his dad held the gun to her face, and she calmly asked him a few times to lower the gun, which he didn't...

To be honest, I was just guessing when I said the Uncle Tom thing might be considered offensive, every other recent example of the X-Books directly cribbing from real life prejudice has caused controversy, why not this one?

e_galston wrote:to be fair to Dazzler, she didn't just "waltz in" the last issue she came to his door, his family let them in.. and she didn't use her powers until AFTER his dad held the gun to her face, and she calmly asked him a few times to lower the gun, which he didn't...

I'll go back and read the ending of the last issue because I don't remember anybody actually inviting Dazzler in. Fabio's father pointing a gun at Dazzler was unfortunate but her presence in their home was clearly escalating the tension that already existed from discovering that Fabio is a mutant. Having another mutant in their home, questioning them and their son, and not leaving when asked was probably more than he could take. It still doesn't justify Dazzler abducting Fabio, handcuffing him to a chair, and interrogating him. Was he under arrest? If he wasn't under arrest then where were his parents? If he was under arrest then where was his lawyer?

Punchy wrote:To be honest, I was just guessing when I said the Uncle Tom thing might be considered offensive, every other recent example of the X-Books directly cribbing from real life prejudice has caused controversy, why not this one?

Because in the last two examples, Rick Remender insulted people with his allegories. I don't think the comparison between the "m-word" and the "n-word" was what offended people, but rather the suggestion that people should abandon their cultural heritage and diversity in favor of conformity and assimilation. It wasn't the use of Wanda's gypsy heritage to make a point about mutants that offended people, but the fact that Remender called it the Romani religion, when it isn't a religion. It's not the use of mutants as a metaphor for race that pisses people off, but the clumsy and often incorrect usage of it.

In this case, Bendis uses the term Uncle Tom properly. Dazzler is a mutant, but she is being willingly subservient to humans, betraying her fellow mutants. It makes sense for a mutant to be angry about this and call her an Uncle Tom. Ergo, no reason for anyone to be mad.